The road to equality is a long one, and the one in the world of sports is even longer. Women’s sports are just about getting fair coverage, but equal? No way, however, contrary to what might be popular opinion, this isn’t because of less viewership; in fact, women’s sport has recently seen a surge in viewership but continues to have to bear the brunt of less coverage as compared to men’s sport. Ex-soccer player and founder of the media company Just Women’s Sports, Haley Rosen, shed some light on the subject in a recent tweet, especially with respect to the MLS, the NWSL and the WNBA.
Rosen’s tweet essentially lays out the argument starting with the viewership of three different sports leagues, the MLS, the NWSL and the WNBA. It turns out that both women’s leagues have more viewers per game than the MLS that has an average of 120,000. The NWSL, despite only coming into existence in 2012, has 189,000 and the WNBA has a whopping 794,000. So why is it that the MLS still has the biggest media deal? This is the question Rosen poses, even saying that “If these deals were being renegotiated today, I’d still bet the MLS walks away with more money per viewer.” indicating that despite the growing viewership in women’s sports, the sporting business still isn’t ready to take risks on women’s leagues.
In fact, as Just Women’s Sports’ founder, Haley Rosen, bluntly pointed out, the MLS still earns nearly $200 million more than the NWSL annually on media rights—despite having fewer viewers per game, a stark reminder of the deeply rooted valuation bias that underpins the entire industry.
Rosen goes on to talk about how in her weekly Podcast, The Playbook, she will discuss the “If these deals were being renegotiated today, I’d still bet the MLS walks away with more money per viewer,” adding that the growth in franchise valuations in women’s sports is the beginning of a perspective shift of stakeholders and investors. Well, high time!
MLS viewers per game: 120,000.
NWSL viewers per game: 189,000.
WNBA viewers per game: 794,000.
And yet guess which league has the biggest media deal?
(Hint: it’s MLS.)
The NWSL is outpacing the MLS in average viewership — in a season without some of its biggest stars. But the…
— Haley Rosen (@HaleyRosen) August 7, 2025
It is thanks to figures like Haley Rosen, who have been on a mission to bring light to the often ignored potential that women’s sports hold, that such changes are underway. Rosen has for a long time been working towards the same with her media company and news website, Just Women’s Sports.
Haley Rosen and the work of her company, Just Women’s Sports to boost NWSL coverage
Haley Rosen’s journey in sports stems back to her days at Stanford, where she played soccer before going on to play both nationally and internationally until injuries forced her to retire. Upon retirement, Rosen found that as a fan she was unable to easily access information on women’s sports, even basic things like scoreboards and schedules, it was because of this that she decided to start Just Women’s Sports, an online news platform and media company that focuses only on women’s sports.
What started as an Instagram page quickly grew into a multimillion-dollar company that impressed investors enough with its viewership to raise $13 million! In 2020 Rosen received her first check for 400K from Eric Chen, a founder of a venture capital firm who believed in Just Women’s Sports’ mission and potential, and from there it just continued to go up and up.
“I’m most proud of the brand we’ve built and an ethos that has stayed consistent since day one. We’ve reset people’s expectations around what successful women’s sports content looks like.” Rosen said, referring to the focus of the company, “Historically, other companies have focused on what athletes do off the field. They’ve focused on what makes female athletes great models, rather than what makes them great and compelling athletes. We celebrate these athletes as athletes and lean into everything that makes sports so captivating and fun.” The honest and straightforward approach to women’s sports that Rosen’s magazine has is what has helped reframe the conversation around gender bias in this industry. So, if Rosen thinks that there is going to be a perspective shift in terms of investment in women’s sports, then she may be onto something; she definitely knows her stuff and a thing or two about investments!
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